Advent 3: Real Repentance
[…] fire.” (3:17) From what I can see, people are not banging down the doors of the church to hear this kind of stuff, especially not just before Christmas. So what are we doing mucking around in this unsettling text about John the Baptist instead basking in the soft glow of Christmas peace and joy? […]
Christmas Eve Year A Meditation: Christmas
[…] points out that the renaissance artists often portrayed the babe at Bethlehem not wrapped in “swaddling clothes,” but naked on his mother’s lap. To get ready for Christmas, she says, God undressed. God stripped off his divine finery and appeared—how embarrassing–naked on the day he was born. “God rips off medals of rank, puts […]
Advent 4A: God With Us
[…] “There is no one who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for me.” (Psalm 146:4) And it is particularly during the Christmas holidays that loneliness becomes unbearable for many. Suicides go up during the Christmas holidays. So do homicides. So do family conflicts and heart attacks and natural […]
Ephesians 1:3-14
Christmas 2A
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider On this second Sunday after Christmas, I wonder how many children could answer the question, “What did you get for Christmas?” I’m guessing that some have forgotten at least a few of the many they received. Not me. When I was a kid, back when we walked […]
Ephesians 1:3-14
Christmas 2B
Comments, Observations, and Questions Almost exactly a year ago (on the first Sunday after Christmas) the lectionary reading for the epistles was this same lesson. At that time, I wrote a long piece on this Center for Excellence in Preaching website in which I focused on a couple of the “spiritual blessings” listed by […]
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
2nd Sunday after Christmas C
[…] and savvy preachers can curl up the corners of their mouths to join the mirth. Because here it is the first Sunday of a new year with Christmas now officially past us by about a week-and-a-half. For weeks now, starting well before American Thanksgiving even, it’s been all Jesus, all the time. The Muzak […]
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Christmas 2A
So, Christmas is finally over, I mean really over. The visitors have all gone home, the tree has been put back in the box, the decorations are down in the basement, and the gifts, well, the gifts have been celebrated, enjoyed, used, broken, returned, or forgotten. But the Lectionary says, “Not so fast. Let’s […]
Galatians 4:4-7
Christmas 1B
[…] attention to the miracle of the Incarnation. In fact, right here in one of (if not the) earliest epistles, Paul offers as profound a theological explanation of Christmas as we’ll find anywhere, except maybe John 1. Unfortunately, this high theology is embedded in a controversy that may seem far removed from our lives in […]
Isaiah 9:2-7
Christmas Day A
[…] But the larger sweep of Isaiah 9 reminds us that to do anyone any good, the Messiah needs precisely wisdom and strength working in tandem. For this Christmas Eve or Christmas Day selection from the RCL, let’s reflect on Jesus as Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace to see how this combination brings hope […]
Matthew 11:2-11
Advent 3A
Last year it was the cups at Starbucks. But every year somebody finds something by which to allege that a coordinated war is being waged on Christmas. Last year since Starbucks stopped putting Merry Christmas on its red holiday paper coffee cups, some customers did a coy end-run on it all by giving their […]
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